The foundational principle of natural law is to cause no harm. Human animals are thus guilty of violating this vital ethic by which to live in harmony with the creatures sharing our natural world. The nescient fact is that the correction of animal abuse is humanity’s way forward to the promise of peace and prosperity. Our courage or failure to care for the planetary animals is a direct reflection upon the strength or weakness of a civilization. As Gandhi so poignantly stated, “ The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
A set of humane and compassionate instructions were imparted to me by John Lash, the Gnostic teacher who is delivering the Sophia mythos to modern man’s awareness. The correction of our human relationships with the animals is paramount to the current correction underway by the planetary Mother’s sentience and intelligence. If humanity expects to participate in her long-awaited correction towards a better and more loving world, then it is our responsibility to correct the erroneous and abusive treatment of animals. The instructions imparted to me involve our relationships to our pets, to the subsistence animals that feed us and the magnificent animals that rule the wild.
Few pet owners can deny the emotional benefits provided to them by their pets. For many of us, it is our beloved pets that teach us the lessons of unconditional love above and beyond our fellow humans. Our dogs impart to us the values of unwavering loyalty and companionship; our cats display fierce independence and mystical wisdom; and our horses provide strength, stamina and dedicated service. All of our pets, whether they be lizards, fish, birds, snakes, rabbits or turtles, are our teachers for the true cooperative and compassionate spirit that is our planet. Our pet animals provide our connection to the imaginative wonder of the natural world, and help us to understand our place within it. And yet, humans succumb to horrific and inhumane acts of animal abuse upon their pets, and in doing so, become the co-destroyers of divine cooperation and participation. They injure the very creatures that are willing to carry their emotional burdens in order that their owners might know more joy. They wittingly or unwittingly destroy their own emotional bond to the very heart and spirit of the Earth herself.
The many animals upon our planet that provide survival sustenance in the way of food are perhaps the most at risk for covert animal abuse on a grand scale. When we sit down to dinner to eat a steak upon our plate, how many of us ask the questions: Where did this meat come from? How was this cow treated during its lifetime? How was it killed? Our mindless consumption paves the way for large scale abuse of the very animals we eat. Do you really want to eat cows and chickens that have been imprisoned their whole lives, exposed to endless toxic vaccines and drugs while inhumanely treated and then killed? Do you really want the screaming cries of pigs and lambs being slaughtered lingering in your body and soul? The humane care of the animals we eat is critical to our own health and well being. We carry the energy of mistreated and slaughtered animals in our being when we eat them; likewise, we carry that energy in the clothes we wear or the products we use: fur coats, leather jackets, wool sweaters, alligator boots, ivory bracelets and zebra rugs. Even the sea creatures do not escape our ruthless consumption. The animals upon which we depend for nourishing subsistence demand our ethical treatment and noble care if we human animals expect to move forward into a healthier and brighter future. It is one thing to hunt and kill a deer because you are hungry; it is another to kill a deer unfairly trapped on a gaming ranch merely for the sport of it.
The kingdom of wild animals has been hunted and exploited to the point of near and full extinction. These magnificent creatures were created to be wild and roam free; not only to remind us of our human animal wildness and love of freedom, but also to inspire our imaginative and creative powers. We have not been given the right to capture or terminate wild animals for profit or trophies; we have ignorantly and immorally taken that right to feed our selfish, narcissistic egos. When one destroys a splendid leopard for such a narrow-minded mission, or imprisons a majestic elephant, one robs the entire planet of a sacred alchemy working on our behalf. When humans seek to capture, imprison, tame, domesticate, abuse and kill the animals of the wild kingdom, they destroy the very lesson the wild animals have to teach: preservation.
The Mother Earth has provided us with a bountiful and plentiful planet by which to fulfill all of our needs. Our immorally incorrect relationship to the animals must be healed, and become a morally correct guardianship if we desire our children to be future recipients of the Earth’s generosity. Animal abuse can no longer be tolerated by those who truly love the spirit of this most wise and beautiful planet.
